Ramapo River Watershed Conference 2015 at Ramapo College

Mahwah, NJ
– The 20th annual Ramapo River Watershed Conference will be held Friday, April
24, at Ramapo College of New Jersey from 10 am – 5 pm in the Trustees Pavilion,
505 Ramapo Valley Road,
also known as Route 202. Presented by the Ramapo River Committee and the
Institute for Environmental Studies at Ramapo
College, the event features a variety
of speakers on environmental topics focusing on the Ramapo
Valley region in New
York and New Jersey.

The event is free but registration
is requested at geoffwelch@gmail.com
or (845) 712-5220. The conference will include an update on Ford
Motor Company’s latest paint sludge clean up in Torne
Valley, a report on how the Ramapo River
is changing from a freshwater stream to a waste water-dominant stream, the
proposed Pilgrim pipeline, and a number of other topics.

9:30 am - Coffee and Bagels

10:00 - Greetings: Ramapo
College President Peter
Mercer

10:10 - 20 Years along the Ramapo, A Retrospective: Geoff Welch
and Howard Horowitz

11:00 - The ProposedPilgrim Pipeline: Threats to the Ramapo River
and Aquifer: Matt Smith
Regional Organizer, Food & Water Watch

11:25 - The Controversial Case of a Proposed 204-Unit Ridge-Top Housing Complex
near the Oakland-Wayne Border: Jeff Tittel: Executive
Director of the NJ Chapter of the Sierra Club

11:45 - The Rockland County Water
Management Task Force:
How it was formed, its mission,
composition, committee work and where we are with regard to meeting Public
Service Commission goals: Harriet Cornell, Chair of the Environmental
Committee of the Rockland County Legislature

12:15 pm –
1:30 pm LUNCH

1:30 - The
Ramapo is changing from a freshwater stream to a wastewater-dominant stream,
with an emphasis on how the Ramapo Valley Well Field and downstream well fields
in NJ and reservoirs are impacted: Robert Kecskes, Retired from the NJDEP
where he was responsible for state and regional water supply planning in New
Jersey

2:45 - Ramapough
Mountain Indians
People, Places and Cultural Traditions: Edward Lenik is a past president of
the Archaeological Society of New Jersey and author of many books including a
series on Indian Rock Art in the northeast and the well-known "Iron Mine
Trails" from the NY/NJ Trails Conference.

3:30 – What’s at Stake with the NJ Exxon Deal? An
update from investigative journalist Bob Hennelly on the controversial
settlement by the Christie Administration with Exxon-Mobil to settle close to
$9 billion dollars in natural resource damage claims for less than 3 cents on
the dollar. Bob Hennelly is the political analyst for WBGO, NPR in Newark, and is a regular
contributor to Salon, City and State and City Limits.

About Us

Website created by Adjunct Professor Jan Barry Crumb. Under his pen name Jan Barry, he is an award-winning journalist, retired from The Record (Bergen Co., NJ). A graduate of Ramapo College, he’s taught journalism at New York University, Rutgers University, St. Thomas Aquinas College and been a guest speaker at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.